Winter Fairy Sketch

Are you drawn to the restaurants that have the white paper tablecloths like I am?  I can have an entire conversation with my husband and sketch the entire time. I love it.

This is a sketch I made while at dinner.  Sometimes pictures just kind of "appear" and are not pre-planned.  I had been thinking about softness and movement and wondering about angles and how they would translate in glass...and whether people would like a bead that is totally profile, instead of the traditional front on view?  ...and of course, I thought about pockets and how I would make them in glass.

Isn't that what you think about while at dinner?  Tell me what you sketch when a piece of paper is put in front of you and you're focused on other things.  I'd love to know.

Sketching on Glass

I recently tried "sketching" on glass to see what the results would be like. And the answer is...I need a little practice!

I wanted to try the equivalent of a line drawing on a simple background. So I picked up a piece of stringer and after laying down the first line, realized, I should have chose a more opaque piece. so I went over the same line again and made the "sketch" too wide.

Ah, life's lessons. And after looking at this bead some more, I think I would want the "drawing" to be smaller for a better proportion. So I will try it again sometime. But meanwhile, I'm hoping you'll post links to some of your "sketch" beads and show me what you can do too!

Sketch First?

Do you ever sketch out what you're going to make in advance?  Sometimes I do, and most of the time, I don't.

But if I'm in a Dr.'s waiting room and reading something that gives me ideas, I tend to draw out what I'm considering.  Here are two examples.  I was at a friend's house and we were leafing through magazines.  Obviously, they were not Martha Stewart or Better Homes & Gardens, but they did give me a few ideas for faces.  

I'm not good at drawing.  I think you can tell that right away.  But I can get the "essence" of what I want to convey down on paper.  

The sketch on the left was of a Tiki type face.  It was a wooden sculpture and I really liked the wide mouth with teeth and the smiling eyes.  I am thinking about trying a glass tiki carving that has a body attached too.  We'll see.

The other one has a look that is very appealing to me.  Eye glasses are always a challenge, so that was one thing I like, and of course the chubby cheeks are something that often occurs in my beads.  The mustache and goatee can turn this fellow into a Colonel Sanders holding a chicken, an Oktoberfest beer drinker in leiderhosen with a beer mug in each hand or even a mad scientist with crazy liquids spilling out of test tubes.

Now all I need is a little spare time in which to try them.....

How To: Sketch Fine Lines On Your Beads

When was the last time you wanted a thin line and stringer control and it didn't quite work out the way you want?

Well, so often it just doesn't happen. And I wanted to do a little experimenting. Here I used the Pine Tree Alabastro glass by Effetre. There are two ways that I generally work with fine lines. One is to case my glass with clear and pull into stringer. Or the other is to just use a very, very low flame with very thin stringer.

This time, I decided to try commercial Effetre white filigrana that I pulled to an even thinner stringer. I wondered whether it would be more controllable because the clear casing is even thicker than what I usually use.

These photos show the bead much larger than it's 1 inch size. If you look carefully, you can see a little of the clear casing with the sketched trees.

I was quite pleased with this effect and know I'm going to try more filigrana in my designs that I've been planning I like the "sketch" look to it. It gives it a casual, but kind of "hip" look.

Do you have a design you'd like to sketch on a bead? What will you try that is different?

You can see a few more shots of this bead in my shop. And don't forget to stop by for my BOGO 1/2 Off Sale. See yesterday's post for details.